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Anxiety in students at an all time high.

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Anxiety in students at an all time high.

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(specifically presentations, speaking, performance based learning)

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Internet access SHOULD be making students better at making connections and asking questions. We start reading an article and there are 17 million hyperlinks so we click and jump off to another article and then an image, then a video, etc. Websites are actually modeling concept mapping as articles predict where your brain will go next. Can we take this and apply it to teaching?

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Modeling higher order thinking questions can be a challenge for content area teachers

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Modeling higher order thinking questions can be a challenge for content area teachers

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I have found great success in not allowing phones AT ALL.  They actually like it once they get used to it. The FOMO is huge with this generation

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I have found great success in not allowing phones AT ALL.  They actually like it once they get used to it. The FOMO is huge with this generation

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We have lessons on a lot of these topics (mental health is a unit of ours) so it is pretty easy to incorporate for us.  In some classes that don't have it that easy, perhaps allowing them to opening talk about topics on a bi-weekly basis?

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Students tend to avoid class/assignments when feeling anxious.  How do we teach them how to work through this rather than add constant accommodations which serve to reinforce their avoidance?

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Students tend to avoid class/assignments when feeling anxious.  How do we teach them how to work through this rather than add constant accommodations which serve to reinforce their avoidance?

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Use student questions to drive discussions.

Use a theme, picture, or controversial statement to spark questions; don't filter until the end.

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http://rightquestion.org/
Techniques for teaching students how to ask better questions.

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I have used the Edcamp model in class where students propose their own topics related to a unit and create a mini lesson for the rest of the class. Their lesson s are shared into a folder where they can later review

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I have used the Edcamp model in class where students propose their own topics related to a unit and create a mini lesson for the rest of the class. Their lesson s are shared into a folder where they can later review

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Allow the students to become an expert on a topic and be the presenter for the day. I have had students do the cooking demonstration for the day.

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Set up an auditory cue (counter bell, buzzer) for students to stop and listen to one group's discussion. How can they take what they've heard and elevate their own discussion.

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Students should be creating questions for challenging content with teacher guidance.  Avoid yes and no questions in discussions. Make questions HOT.

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Students should be creating questions for challenging content with teacher guidance.  Avoid yes and no questions in discussions. Make questions HOT.

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Mindset of students with emotional issues

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Mindset of students with emotional issues

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Worth a conversation. The assumption is that all staff members are understanding, but that may not be what is perceived by these students. How do we become approachable without losing the boundaries? Where do we draw the line between focus on academics and mental stability?

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I love the idea of making "acts of kindness" part of my classroom. Sharing what they see when it comes to kindness around the school and then brainstorming ways they can promote kindness or be kind to others.

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I like to do the LEFT RIGHT CENTER (signs on the wall) where students have to physically get up and move to the side that they want to support.  The idea is to get your point across so that the center (neutral) people move to your side

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I like to do the LEFT RIGHT CENTER (signs on the wall) where students have to physically get up and move to the side that they want to support.  The idea is to get your point across so that the center (neutral) people move to your side

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A good hook is necessary to garner interest in the discussion. Once they are hooked, they continue to find personal connections that drive conversation and discussion.

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Use visual literacy to encourage student-led discussions.  Video tape students academic conversations to keep them talking.  

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Use visual literacy to encourage student-led discussions.  Video tape students academic conversations to keep them talking.  

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provide a variety of examples of success 

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provide a variety of examples of success 

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I think we can get locked into defining success in very particular ways related to placement in a class, college admission, selection into an ensemble or onto a team or whatever perceived triumph is discussed at Bunko on Friday night. How often to we hold up people that are truly happy and settled in their lives that were "average" or took a different path? Do we help kids learn to find joy

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Some of the simplest prompts for healthy social behaviors work the best. I ask my students to high five the partner they find for discussion groups. I stopped saying this to students after the first two weeks of school and they still do it now...simple, but it sticks. 

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Some of the simplest prompts for healthy social behaviors work the best. I ask my students to high five the partner they find for discussion groups. I stopped saying this to students after the first two weeks of school and they still do it now...simple, but it sticks. 

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It is important to make questions a norm in class. If we require students to create a question even though "they don't have any". aren't we helping them to practice inquiry?

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It is important to make questions a norm in class. If we require students to create a question even though "they don't have any". aren't we helping them to practice inquiry?

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Using some tech like pear deck or polleverywhere is good to use to give everyone a voice

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Using some tech like pear deck or polleverywhere is good to use to give everyone a voice

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https://www.huffingtonpost.com/glennon-melton/this-brilliant-math-teacher-has-a-formula-to-save-kids-lives_b_4899349.html

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I've been trying to wordsmith this over the years, but it's posted at the front of the classroom & I point to it often:
You do not always know what someone might have experienced or what those close to them have experienced.Sometimes, it’s not about you.

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Give students the language they need for successful discussions. Post/display question stems or sentence starters to supplement discussions.  Students will begin to use them on their own in order to enhance a discussion or move a discussion in another direction.  

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Give students the language they need for successful discussions. Post/display question stems or sentence starters to supplement discussions.  Students will begin to use them on their own in order to enhance a discussion or move a discussion in another direction.  

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Avoid answering the easy questions for students

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Avoid answering the easy questions for students

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Taking a simple question that a student asks and turning it back on them to think a little deeper or work a little harder will eventually begin to build their independence and cause them to be more reflective in the types of questions they ask.

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What other existing models are backed by research in addition to Socratic seminars, etc?

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Have students work backwards... Show them the result and have them discover the questions to reveal the starting point. 

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Have students work backwards... Show them the result and have them discover the questions to reveal the starting point. 

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I created this for a grad class. The audience was future administrators and what they should look for in an English classroom. BUT these are just good practices! The speaking/discussion things start on Slide 11

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Our students are very aware of when their work will be evaluated/ observed. Taking an academic discussion and videotaping it with screencastify (chrome extension) or flipgrid adds an element of realness and accountability that engages students even while working totally independently. Even if you won't see it, have them turn in a video of their discussion with a partner on Google Classroom. Later, I have my students self-reflect on what they said, where they started the chapter, etc. 

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Our students are very aware of when their work will be evaluated/ observed. Taking an academic discussion and videotaping it with screencastify (chrome extension) or flipgrid adds an element of realness and accountability that engages students even while working totally independently. Even if you won't see it, have them turn in a video of their discussion with a partner on Google Classroom. Later, I have my students self-reflect on what they said, where they started the chapter, etc. 

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I think of the preparation students (should) do to learn how to be a better group member / participant in -- training for how to respond to others, manage a group conversation. Things like Kagan's Cooperative Learning work already exists and could help contribute to this kind of work and also help us achieve academic goals.

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Start the year with seating challenges to build community

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Start the year with seating challenges to build community

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I read an article on Edweek in August that suggested teachers challenge their students with seating "puzzles" so they could watch how the students problem solve. It suggests a different puzzle every day for a week. I tried it. It took time, but it really developed some community in my classroom that helped foster deeper discussion right off the bat. The student reaction went from disbelief the first day to eye-rolling on day 3 to excitement on day 5 to disappointment that we weren't doing it on day 6. But they knew each other better, and inhibitions of "talking to strangers" melted away. I also got to see their personalities, leadership skills, and tolerance for working through a difficult task.

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Where do I sit? It's the universal first question, at the top of students' minds as they cross the threshold of my room on the first day of class.

Many teachers start the semester with students seated alphabetically: It's easy and aids in learning names. Others may wait to make a seating chart until they get to know their students.

I've tried both of these approaches with my 8th graders. Until recently, I usually seated students alphabetically while paying attention to gender. I'd also get feedback from previous teachers on whether I should watch out for any "bad combinations."

However, these practices don't demand anything from students. Nor do they provide immediate data about the nature of the class.

I've found that by engaging students in seating challenges, I set a positive collaborative tone from the first day. I also gain information about how each class will function-information that might otherwise take weeks to learn.

On the first five days of class, my students determine where they sit based on team problem-solving activities. These activities provide baseline data about class chemistry, learning styles, and students' personalities. The approach requires my students to demonstrate proactivity, collaboration, resourcefulness, and interdependence. They experience my expectations firsthand.

In return, students learn to expect me to be prepared, organized, and supportive—as opposed to being authoritative and having all the answers.

Here's how the approach works in my middle school classroom, which seats 32 students around five large tables. You may want to adapt the activities, select from them, or reorder them. (Currently they're arranged in order of complexity.)

Each activity takes 10 to 15 minutes but there is some preparation. Before beginning, I label the tables and chairs in an orderly way and post the seating challenge prominently.

Day 1: Greet each student at the door and make sure he or she is in the right classroom. Next, before he or she has a chance to sit down, direct the student to follow the posted instructions: "Sit in birthday order so that the person with the birthday closest to January 1 sits in Seat 1. The year you were born doesn't matter. Don't skip seats. When everyone is seated, the student in Seat 5 will raise his or her hand and report that the class is ready to begin."

Observe the interactions: Look for organizers, active and passive participants, refusers and disrupters. Be mindful that some students would rather be invisible and that the activity is probably something they haven't experienced before.

If anyone asks you what to do, redirect him or her to classmates and the posted instructions. Encourage students and remind them that you don't know the answer.

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When Seat 5 reports in, do a couple of spot checks, show them where your birthday lies (just for fun!), and begin your lesson. By the end of this activity, every student will have interacted with other students and many will have reported to the whole class in a safe, nonthreatening way. (Ok, Seat 5 is under some pressure.)

Day 2: Ask the students to follow these instructions: "Line up in alphabetical order by the name you like to be called. Use last names and then middle names as tie-breakers. Then sit with an equal number of students at Tables 1-4. Remaining students sit at Table 5. When all are seated, the last student raises his or her hand and reports that the class is ready."

Adjusting to have equal numbers at each table produces a lot of interaction and some tension. Watch closely how students with different ideas negotiate. Don't intervene with the answer, but mediate if necessary. Have students quickly report out their names. Treat alphabetizing mistakes kindly, of course.

Day 3 is different. Meet each student at the door with a paper that says, "Read this card completely. Do not enter the room until you understand the instructions. You may talk about the instructions before you enter the room. When you understand the instructions, give the card back to Mr. Merz, enter the room, and begin." Here's what the card says:

1) Complete this challenge in complete silence: Remain silent for the entire activity. Do not talk or whisper after you enter the room.

2) In the room, line up in order by height.

3) Then take your seats with the shortest person in Seat 1.

4) Do not skip seats.

5) When the class is seated, the student in Seat 12 raises his or her hand, and when called on reports that the class is ready.

Post the instructions in the room as well. Although the task is easy, the silent rule adds some stress, so observe which defense mechanisms students display. Note who is comfortable reading the cards and who avoids the task.

On Days 4 and 5 students sort themselves into groups and sub-groups that may be lopsided. The instructions demand more judgment and decision-making from the students.

Day 4: The instructions read: "Sort yourselves into two groups: sneaker wearers and non-sneaker wearers. Next, each group forms two subgroups: students with curly hair and those with straight hair. You have curly or straight hair if you think you do. Each sub-group finds enough chairs and sits in order from the person with the shortest hair to the person with the longest hair."

A tree diagram showing the groups may help. Watch how they negotiate and decide where to sit.

Day 5: The instructions read: "Form two groups—students who prefer to spend free time indoors and those who prefer to spend it outdoors. You may like both but choose just one. Within those groups, define your own subgroups based on the last thing you did when you spent free time the way you wanted to. Find a place to sit together and talk about your free time activity."

By the time you complete this series of seating challenges, you will have a good idea about how your classes will function and have a sense of the key players and personalities. The data can help guide you in your planning and execution throughout the course. And by training students to rely on each other and work together, you've demonstrated your norms rather than explaining them.

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Teaching Secrets: Get to Know Students Through Seating Challenges

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Where do I sit? It's the universal first question, at the top of students' minds as they cross the threshold of my room on the first day of class. Many teachers start the semester with students seated alphabetically: It's easy and aids in learning names.

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Kids seem to define collaboration as a necessary evil to get to personal gain (group project/task/grade). I believe that they need to be taught to celebrate the successes and talents of others, because doing so will not jeopardize their own opportunities-it will make life richer. How do we celebrate the triumphs of others in class? How do we point them out? How do we help kids recognize them, then derive pleasure from them without feeling threatened or insignificant?

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Responding positively. Giving other students credit for asking questions. Opening up dialog in a small group and giving students credit for their responses.  Creating a community where the students know each other and are comfortable. 

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Responding positively. Giving other students credit for asking questions. Opening up dialog in a small group and giving students credit for their responses.  Creating a community where the students know each other and are comfortable. 

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I have been forcing students to put away their devices and have conversations with their peers. It always amazes me that it can be half way thru the semester and they don't know their classmates. Taking a few minutes once a week to build that culture in a class.

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Using Higher Order Questions to Lead Discussions

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Using Higher Order Questions to Lead Discussions

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This year I have been using a lot of guided notes in Geometry.  While I am not a huge fan of guided notes, I have seen a huge advantage to them in Geometry where the class requires lots of vocabulary, pictures, and formulas.  I have adjusted my class time from students copying down problems to solving them.

This year, I have been so happy to see my students use their problems on their notes sheets to compare similar problems and discuss how to solve problems with their peers. I love seeing their engagement with the problems rather than seeing them struggling to just get the right answer and move on. I also have seen that their engagement improves when I set the foundation and then give them challenging problems.

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How do we teach our students to take a question and build off of it? Inquiry and research? How do we expand our students' curiosity?

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What opportunities do students have to ask questions they might hesitate to in person or in front of peers? Are there digital tools that do this well, such as a back channel, can they be directed to the ARC or elsewhere? 

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What opportunities do students have to ask questions they might hesitate to in person or in front of peers? Are there digital tools that do this well, such as a back channel, can they be directed to the ARC or elsewhere? 

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Make the questions count. I've been trying to implement creating student questions and using them. Article that explains the process is attached! I've used the questions to create a reading guide and the anchor to student presentations.

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I've been able to shift to this question at the end of instruction/directions/introductions and I have found that it really does spur-on the questions. Automatically assuming that they do have questions makes it more acceptable to ask them. Exit slip questions, post it note questions on the door as they walk out, etc.

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We work quite a bit on how to treat others with in your group or team. We extend it to work on how to treat people on other teams or other groups.

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I project a positive quote on the board each day to give the students something to ponder about the quality of life that deals with living more than my subject. In general, knowing their name, responding positively, creating step-by-step successes.

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I project a positive quote on the board each day to give the students something to ponder about the quality of life that deals with living more than my subject. In general, knowing their name, responding positively, creating step-by-step successes.

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I am always shocked by the students who are chronically absent. I try my best to always understand their situation and work with them to the best of my ability, but many of the responsibilities of catching the student up fall on the teacher and it usually becomes a frustrating experience. I could also imagine that there is a lot of anxiety for the student about all of his or her missing work and he or she may become more reluctant to come back to school thus increasing the problem. I have also had about 150 missing assessments this school year. What additional, automatic supports can we put in place to limit chronic absenteeism and help teachers, students, counselors, deans, parents etc.

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We start with the basics and move to the climbing wall

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Many students are reluctant to ask questions because they have received a negative reaction from one of their teachers. If we really want to encourage a culture of questioning in our classes, we need to mindful of HOW we are answering questions. Are we giving students the impression that there is "no stupid question" or are we making students feel bad about themselves for asking a question that may have already been answered.

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Give students a starting question and let them meet in small groups to discuss. From there, explain they must then pose new questions and continue the conversation. Giving some key words or ideas may help them as they get started, but as they get more comfortable, students will hopefully take the lead. Assigning groups can help with placing higher level students with others who are nervous to speak up and develop questions.

Flipgrid has also really helped with this in my classroom. Students can record and then respond to each other. Can be done quickly to start or end the class period.

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How many of use stand in the hall before class? Could we have a poster on the door that kids slap on their way in to let us know which emoji fits on that particular day?

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Building students ability to ask questions

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Building students ability to ask questions

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Volume 27, Number 5
September/October 2011

One small change can yield big results

Students in Hayley Dupuy's sixth-grade science class at the Jane Lathrop Stanford Middle School in Palo Alto, Calif., are beginning a unit on plate tectonics. In small groups, they are producing their own questions, quickly, one after another: What are plate tectonics? How fast do plates move? Why do plates move? Do plates affect temperature? What animals can sense the plates moving? They raise questions "that we never would have thought of if we started to answer the first question we asked," says one of the students. "And just when you think you already know the question you want to focus on, you realize: 'Oh, wow, here's this other question that is so much better, and that's really what you need to think about.'"

Far from Palo Alto, in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, Mass., Sharif Muhammad's students at the Boston Day and Evening Academy (BDEA) have a strikingly similar experience. Many of them had transferred to BDEA for various reasons from other schools and had not always experienced much success as students. But working individually, they find that formulating their own questions engages them in a new way. One of the students observes: "When you ask the question, you feel like it's your job to get the answer, and you want to figure it out."

These two students-one in Palo Alto, the other in Roxbury-are discovering something that may seem obvious: When students know how to ask their own questions, they take greater ownership of their learning, deepen comprehension, and make new connections and discoveries on their own. However, this skill is rarely, if ever, deliberately taught to students from kindergarten through high school. Typically, questions are seen as the province of teachers, who spend years figuring out how to craft questions and fine-tune them to stimulate students' curiosity or engage them more effectively. We have found that teaching students to ask their own questions can accomplish these same goals while teaching a critical lifelong skill.

The Question Formulation Technique
Dupuy, Muhammad, and many other teachers are using a step-by-step process that we and our colleagues at the Right Question Institute have developed called the Question Formulation Technique (QFT). This technique helps students learn how to produce their own questions, improve them, and strategize on how to use them (see sidebar "Question Formulation Technique").

The origins of the QFT can be traced back 20 years to a dropout prevention program for the city of Lawrence, Mass., that was funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. As we worked together to increase parent involvement in education, we heard parents state the same problem over and over again: "We're not going to the schools because we don't even know what to ask." Eventually, this problem led us to create a simple but powerful process that has been used effectively in a wide range of fields across the country and beyond. In health care, for example, research funded by the National Institutes of Health has shown that the QFT produces dramatic increases in levels of patient activation and improved patient-provider communication. In the classroom, teachers have seen how the same process manages to develop students' divergent (brainstorming), convergent (categorizing and prioritizing), and metacognitive (reflective) thinking abilities in a very short period of time.

Teachers can use the QFT at different points: to introduce students to a new unit, to assess students' knowledge to see what they need to understand better, and even to conclude a unit to see how students can, with new knowledge, set a fresh learning agenda for themselves. The technique can be used for all ages.

Students have used the QFT to develop science experiments, create their own research projects, begin research on a teacher-assigned topic, prepare to write an essay, analyze a word problem, think more deeply about a challenging reading assignment, prepare an interview, or simply get themselves "unstuck."

The QFT has six key steps:

Step 1: Teachers Design a Question Focus. The Question Focus, or QFocus, is a prompt that can be presented in the form of a statement or a visual or aural aid to focus and attract student attention and quickly stimulate the formation of questions. The QFocus is different from many traditional prompts because it is not a teacher's question. It serves, instead, as the focus for student questions so students can, on their own, identify and explore a wide range of themes and ideas. For example, after studying the causes of the 1804 Haitian revolution, one teacher presented this QFocus: "Once we were slaves. Now we are free." The students began asking questions about what changed and what stayed the same after the revolution.

Step 2: Students Produce Questions. Students use a set of rules that provide a clear protocol for producing questions without assistance from the teacher. The four rules are: ask as many questions as you can; do not stop to discuss, judge, or answer any of the questions; write down every question exactly as it was stated; and change any statements into questions. Before students start generating their questions, the teacher introduces the rules and asks the students to think about and discuss possible challenges in following them. Once the students get to work, the rules provide a firm structure for an open-ended thinking process. Students are able to generate questions and think more broadly than they would have if they had not been guided by the rules.

Step 3: Students Improve Their Questions. Students then improve their questions by analyzing the differences between open- and closed-ended questions and by practicing changing one type to the other. The teacher begins this step by introducing definitions of closed- and open-ended questions. The students use the definitions to categorize the list of questions they have just produced into one of the two categories. Then, the teacher leads them through a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of both kinds of questions. To conclude this step, the teacher asks the students to change at least one open-ended question into a closed-ended one, and vice versa, which leads students to think about how the phrasing of a question can affect the depth, quality, and value of the information they will obtain.

Step 4: Students Prioritize Their Questions. The teacher, with the lesson plan in mind, offers criteria or guidelines for the selection of priority questions. In an introduction to a unit, the instruction may be, "Choose the three questions you most want to explore further." When designing a science experiment, it may be, "Choose three testable questions." An essay related to a work of fiction may require that students select "three questions related to the key themes we've identified in this piece." During this phase, students move from thinking divergently to thinking convergently, zero in on the locus of their inquiry, and plan concrete action steps for getting information they need to complete the lesson or task.

Step 5: Students and Teachers Decide on Next Steps. At this stage, students and teachers work together to decide how to use the questions. One teacher, for example, presented all the groups' priority questions to the entire class the next day during a "Do Now" exercise and asked them to rank their top three questions. Eventually, the class and the teacher agreed on this question for their Socratic Seminar discussion: "How do poverty and injustice lead to violence in A Tale of Two Cities?"

Step 6: Students Reflect on What They Have Learned. The teacher reviews the steps and provides students with an opportunity to review what they have learned by producing, improving, and prioritizing their questions. Making the QFT completely transparent helps students see what they have done and how it contributed to their thinking and learning. They can internalize the process and then apply it in many other settings.

When teachers deploy the QFT in their classes, they notice three important changes in classroom culture and practices. Teachers tell us that using the QFT consistently increases participation in group and peer learning processes, improves classroom management, and enhances their efforts to address inequities in education. As teachers see this happen again and again, they realize that their traditional practice of welcoming questions is not the same as deliberately teaching the skill of question formulation. Or, as one teacher put it: "I would often ask my students, 'Do you have any questions,' but, of course, I didn't get much back from them." In his seven years of teaching, Muhammad also encouraged his Roxbury students to ask questions but had seen just how difficult that could be for them. After using the six-step process outlined above, he was struck by "how the students went farther, deeper, and asked questions more quickly than ever before."

One Significant Change
For teachers, using the QFT requires one small but significant shift in practice: Students will be asking all the questions. A teacher's role is simply to facilitate that process. This is a significant change for students as well. It may take a minimum of 45 minutes for students to go through all the steps the first time it is introduced in a classroom; but as they gain experience using the QFT, teachers find that the students can run through the process very quickly, in 10 to 15 minutes, even when working in groups.

The QFT provides a deliberate way to help students cultivate a skill that is fundamentally important for all learning. Teaching this skill in every classroom can help successful students to go deeper in their thinking and encourage struggling students to develop a new thirst for learning. Their questions will have much to teach us.

Dan Rothstein and Luz Santana, codirectors of the Right Question Institute, are the authors of the forthcoming book Make Just One Change: Teach Students to Ask Their Own Questions to be published in September 2011 by Harvard Education Press.

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Volume 27, Number 5 September/October 2011 One small change can yield big results Students in Hayley Dupuy's sixth-grade science class at the Jane Lathrop Stanford Middle School in Palo Alto, Calif., are beginning a unit on plate tectonics. In small groups, they are producing their own questions, quickly, one after another: What are plate tectonics?

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I think the best student led discussions I've ever seen in classes are those that occur with large, and kind of intense projects. We've done trials where students have to take the lead on their arguments and their roles. It's been fun to sit back and watch the discussions and drama unfold.

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Here is a blog post about how our Health teachers addressed questioning:

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Motivating our students to ask good questions is a constant battle in the classroom. We know they have questions. We give them time and other outlets to ask questions, but they still struggle to do so. During our second week of Target Team meetings, I heard numerous teams discussing the idea of how to teach the art of questioning, especially after students experience a challenging text. As I shared a week ago, our Target Teams are focusing on how to bridge the gap between advocacy, access, and academics. Students need to learn how and when to ask appropriate questions if we want them to be successful with these three focus points

Our Health teachers had an awesome discussion during our Target Team day about strategies they can utilize when encouraging students to ask questions about texts and other topics in the classroom. The conversation started with a focus on how to incorporate difficult texts into their classes, which then quickly transformed into a discussion about how to help students make sense of these difficult texts. Their biggest concern....how can we get our students to ask more questions, especially when they are overwhelmed by a class topic or lesson? Laziness, fear of judgment from others, embarrassment, or even inability to articulate/compose a question may be the culprit of silence when teachers ask for questions from their students. Although challenging, teachers need to get creative and strategic when empowering students to ask good questions.

Here are five creative ideas to spark questioning. All of them are easily transferable to any other classroom and content:

Sometimes, students don't know what questions to ask or don't want to sound "stupid" in front of their peers. Dr. Lance Fuhrer, one of our assistant principals, recommended writing a few questions on notecards ahead of time. When students walk in, hand out the notecards to students who don't regularly participate. From there, ask these students to read the question on the notecard during your discussion. By providing the question, it takes some of the pressure off of the students but still gives them a bit of ownership.

Sometimes, students just need help getting their questions started. Mr. Jason Arquilla, one of the Health teachers, explained that he has a soccer ball with a variety of question stems taped to it. During a discussion, students toss the ball to a peer, and that student must ask a question using the question stem from where his/her thumb landed. There are a variety of ways to do this, but giving the students access to questions stems will provide awesome support in composing a question.

Sometimes, students need a chance to write down their questions first before sharing them with others. Asking students to write down questions on sticky notes gets them thinking and writing. From there, teachers can use these sticky notes for other class activities. For example, students can post their questions around the room...a perk of the stickiness. Then, teachers can ask these student-generated questions, or ask students to travel around the room to read questions aloud or actually respond right on the sticky note. Another idea....have students leave the sticky-notes on the table until later in the period. Teachers can then ask students to work together to choose the best question at a table or a question that still needs to be answered about the topic that day.

4. Audience-Driven Questioning

Sometimes, students need to be asked to get creative with their questions, and teachers need to get creative when asking for questions. Teachers can do this with characters, historical figures, or other relevant people/groups of people: What would you ask John Proctor after reading this scene from The Crucible? What questions would you ask the school board members when arguing for a later start time? What questions would you ask ___________ based on your understanding of _________? As with other ideas, this type of question takes the pressure of the students and makes the class content more relatable.

Sometimes, students need to be cued in a different way when asking them for questions. During a lunch and learn, Dr. Fuhrer offered this simple example: instead of just asking for questions by saying, "Any questions?", a teacher can rephrase by saying, "What questions do you have?" By changing the question, teachers imply that questions are normal and expected. Students might feel more comfortable knowing that their teacher expects questions about the content. In addition, teachers could also avoid the word 'question' altogether. For example, when my students worked on their Inquiry Projects, I had them complete a daily reflection at the end of the period. My final question, 'How can Mrs. Wilson help you?' By changing my wording from 'what questions do you have?' to 'How can Mrs. Wilson help you?' I received some awesome questions about their work that guided me through lesson planning for the next class period.

There are also some fantastic digital resources that provide great opportunities for students to reflect and ask questions:

Integrates interactive questions and activities right into a presentation/slide deck

Records students as they ask questions or respond to questions

Padlet - Offers numerous options for asking questions in a bulletin board style format

How do you motivate students to ask questions in your classroom? Comment below with thoughts, ideas, and questions of your own! #whatsup

**Thanks to our awesome Health teachers (Mr. David Ricca, Ms. Laura Kurtyak, Mr. Dave Brouwer, and Mr. Jason Arquilla) for sharing your ideas and for the work you do on a daily basis for our students!

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Motivating our students to ask good questions is a constant battle in the classroom. We know they have questions. We give them time and other outlets to ask questions, but they still struggle to do so.

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What is the first question that comes to your mind?

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http://amorebeautifulquestion.com/

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Intriguing Times images stripped of their captions -- and an invitation to students to discuss them live.

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9 Great Ways to Encourage Students to Ask Questions

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9 Great Ways to Encourage Students to Ask Questions

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If you fast-forward to that same child when he is ten, however, you will most likely observe that much of that wide-eyed wonder has dissipated. In its place is a learned resignation to squelch curiosity so as not to displease any adults or call unwelcome attention to himself. Society has taught him that it is not his place to question; wiser people will supply him with the knowledge that he must retain.

Of course, when it's described this way, few adults will support this type of suppression. We know that it is in the best interest of our 21st century children to raise them to be critical thinkers - and that means they must be skillful at not just asking questions, but at asking the right kinds of questions. However, traditional schools remain places, for the most part, where students are given information to retain. That information is generally selected by adults based on what we think future generations need to know. There is little room left in the curriculum for students to question because we are too busy supplying them with what we have deemed to be the acceptable answers. As a result, students learn that questions are not welcome, and eventually voice them less and less.

Educators are growing to realize, however, that questioning is a skill that we should develop rather than discourage. So, what can we do to maintain and develop that pre-school curiosity as our children grow older? Here are 9 ways that teachers can help their students ask questions.

Computers are Useless

Pablo Picasso once said, "Computers are useless. They can only give you answers." While computers have advanced quite a bit since Picasso spoke those words, his point is still valid. One advantage that humans have over machines is that we wonder and we imagine what could be. Computers would have a difficult time answering a "what if?" question. They know the answers to the questions that have already been asked, but they do not know the questions for the answers yet to come. It is our job as educators to guide our students to find ways to think beyond the computer so that computers will remain tools that augment exploration and learning rather than become life support for our brains. For those who are uncomfortable with questioning, they should keep in mind this Chinese proverb, "He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes; he who does not ask a question remains a fool forever."

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9 Great Ways to Encourage Students to Ask Questions

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If you fast-forward to that same child when he is ten, however, you will most likely observe that much of that wide-eyed wonder has dissipated. In its place is a learned resignation to squelch curiosity so as not to displease any adults or call unwelcome attention to himself.

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Why Social and Emotional Learning Is Essential for Students

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Why Social and Emotional Learning Is Essential for Students

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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Why are kids afraid to talk to teachers?

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Why are kids afraid to talk to teachers?

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What is the reality for different students?